Arrangement to inspect stacked legendized papers, in particular to read the addresses of stacked letters



35 Q 1 CROSS REFEECE SEARCH M g i a H1 n 9 195 A. MEHL IS 2,889,941Xl L1 ARRANGEMENT TO INSPECT STACKED LEGENDIZED PAPERS, IN 5 PARTICULAR TO READ THE ADDRESSES OF STACKED LETTERS Filed May 27, 1957 INVENTOR A. jxxzmi BY W ATTORNEY United States Patent O i ARRANGEMENT T INSPECT STACKED LEGENDIZED PAPERS, IN PARTICU- LAR TO READ THE ADDRESSES OF STACKED LETTERS Arthur Mehlis, Stuttgart-Zuflfenhausen, Germany, as-

siguor to International Standard Electric Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Application May 27, 1957, Serial No. 661,757

Claims priority, application Germany May 31, 1956 11 Claims. (Cl. 214-11) The invention concerns an arrangement that enables stacked legendized or inscribed papers to be displayed for inspection, and in particular deals with stacked letters in order to enable the addresses thereof to be read with ease. Such arrangements are wanted especially where the stacked papers such as letters, though in any accidental position within their stack, are to be investigated in respect of certain particulars. If the papers are rectangular, being so in most cases, they may happen to be in any one of four positions. If they are square, eight positions will be possible. Where the papers arriving at the person who has to handle them are not in the proper position for reading, each paper must be given this position by turning it in the requisite way.

Arrangements have become known in which the papers are turned automatically to display their particulars. For example, letters can be sorted in accordance with the position of their postage stamps in order to display their addresses. The position of the stamp is ascertained with the aid of photoelectric means that control a device by which the papers will then be turned into the requisite position.

{These arrangements, however, do not work satisfactorily unless the papers are of approximately the same appearance, that is, in the case of mail assorters the letter envelopes must be uniform as to size, and the stamps must always be at the same location on the envelopes. When the size of the envelope varies, or the stamp is not placed at the customary position on the envelope, failure of these arrangements is unavoidable.

Accordingly, this invention is concerned with an arrangement which permits visual inspection of stacked legendized articles preliminary to the sorting thereof in accordance with their particulars, and which especially enables the addresses on letter envelopes to be read and the letters to be sorted, in accordance with their destination, with the aid of a conveyor by which the articles are moved in succession past an inspection station, there being interposed between the articles to be inspected and the viewer inspecting them at said station, an optical system by which each article will be depicted in all of its possible positions and preferably on a single surface, these positions appearing beside and/or above each other.

The above-mentioned and other features and objects of this invention and the manner of attaining them will become more apparent and the invention itself will be best understood, by reference to the following description of an embodiment of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing which is a schematic representation thereof.

A pair of endless belts 1A, 113', known as clamping belts and having upright end-pulleys P3, P4, are mounted above a guide plate E and deliver letters 2 to a conveying belt 1 carried by end-pulleys P1, P2. The letters arriving edgewise on belt 1 pass into a channel formed of two transparent upright walls 1A, 1B by which they are guided whilst upright and which enable the envelopes of Patented June 9, 1959 the letters to be inspected. The belts 1A, 1B, referred to as clamping belts, may be of relatively small width so as not to obstruct an appreciable portion of the surface of the letters 2.

Alternatively, the belts 1A and 1B may be made of transparent material or may be provided with series of spaced apertures (not shown) and which apertures will be in register with coresponding apertures in the other belt and in the return runs thereof. It is intended that there will thus be four apertures in register. It is essential that the address portion of the letter not be masked by the belts 1A, 1B, nor by the walls 1A, 1B and, therefore, the above mentioned alternatives are proposed.

There are four possible positions in which the envelopes can be when traveling along the belt 1. If an operator is to scan the addresses of the envelopes as they pass along the belt 1, he must be in a position to read the envelopes in any one of their four possible positions. If he were to read different envelopes without touching them, he would be obliged to read one of them upside down on one side and possibly one upside down on the other side. This invention permits an operator to scan the address of each envelope as it is conveyed along the belt 1 while it is in any one of the four positions. In fact, the invention displays the four possible aspects of the envelope by means of the apparatus which will now be described.

The view apparatus consists of a pair of opaque mirrors 3 disposed on opposite sides of the belt 1, each of the mirrors being disposed at a 45 reversed angle from the plane of the letters 2. The pair of mirrors 3 are in alignment with a second pair of transparent mirrors 6, which are disposed at similar 45 angles so that they may reflect light rays upwardly, these being received from the mirrors 3. The mirrors 6 are semi-permeable in that they reflect a portion of the light while another portion of the light passes through the mirror without reflection. Spaced in line with the mirrors 3 and 6 are a third pair of opaque mirrors 4 which are adapted to lie at a 45 angle similar to the position of the mirrors 6 so that they may receive light rays reflected by the mirrors 3. The mirrors 4 are fully reflective. Disposed between the mirrors 4 and 6 are a first pair of optical reversing devices 7. The mirrors 4 are adapted to reflect light rays onto the bottom face of a ground glass plate 8 which lies in a plane parallel to and above belt 1. A lens system 5 interposed between the mirrors 4 and the glass plate 8. Also, an optical reversing device 7 is interposed between the mirrors 6 and the plate 8. Moreover there are a pair of light-sources 9 disposed on opposite sides of the belt and adapted to illuminate opposite sides of the envelopes 2.

The arrangement is such that four images will appear on the ground glass plate 8, each in one of four fields A, B, C, D thereof. The images at A, C will be projected with a 180 reversal and the images B, D will similarly be projected with a 180 reversal due to the additional lens systems 7. Thus, no matter in which of the four positions a letter appears on the belt 1, at least one of the images A, C, B, D will be readable by an operator standing in a fixed position in front of the ground glass plate 8 without the necessity of having to read any intelligence in an upside down or reversed position.

Plate 8 also has four keys a, b, c, d each assigned to one of the fields A, B, C, D of this plate. The operator has to depress only the key of that field in which the image appears by which the letter is shown as in the desired position, that is, the position enabling the address to be read. These keys are arranged to control a turn device 11 carrying a guide way 12 for the letters leaving the belt 1. The guide way 12 is a rotatable continuation of channel 1A, 1B and can be set to any one of four outgoing channels A, B, C, D by means of the device 11 controlled by the keys a, b, c, a. A conveying belt F may be arranged to support the letter in guide way 12 and to shift it into the respective one of the channels A, B, C', D in order to move it along this channel.

The arrangement may further be such that the belts 1, 1A, 1B shall be stopped as soon as a letter arrives on belt 1, and that they shall be restarted through depression of any one of the keys a, b, c, d. 'The belts will again be stopped by a new letter reaching the mirrors 3.

The device 11 is of well known construction and therefore is not more fully described here.

If articles such as packages which are square or rectangular in shape are to be carried on a conveyor system, additional semi-permeable mirrors similar to the mirrors 6 may be utilized which extend at different angles from the mirrors 6 and which feed into additional lens systems in conjunction with auxiliary mirrors similar to the mirrors 4 so that more than four images may be projected on a ground glass plate similar to the plate 8. Such an arrangement is not further disclosed but it is within the purview of this invention to display a plurality of images on a screen of which at least one will read right-side up when viewed by an operator.

The operation of the device is such that the belts are adapted to be interrupted in their motion so that each letter will remain a predetermined length of time in line with the mirrors 3 so that the operator may have an oportunity of digesting the information received from the images A D and may actuate a suitable control device (not shown) to control sorting apparatus and which will selectively conduct each letter to a particular receptacle indicative of the destination recorded on the envelope.

In addition to the operation of the control governed-by an operator to direct the letter to its proper receptacle, suitable apparatus may be provided so that each letter may be 'brought into a uniform position and further process, if necessary. This would entail other control devices under the aegis of an operator. Such uniform arrangement may be necessary for cancelling stamps, etc.

Accordingly, it is within the purview of this invention that means may be provided to either physically rotate the letters 2 so that they will all be in uniform position or that may be selectively switched onto any of four subsidiary belts depending upon their position of the main belt 1.

While I have described above the principle of my invention in connection with specific apparatus, it is to be clearly understood that this description is made only by way of example and not as a limitation to the scope of my invention as set forth in the objects thereof and in the accompanying claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An arrangement for displaying a plurality of aspects of an article comprising a viewing screen, a plurality of mirror systems, each system in light reflecting relation between said article and said screen, given of said systems comprising opaque mirror means and other of said systems comprising transparent mirror means, optical reversing means intermediate said screen and each of said systems, and additional optical reversing means within the light-path of said opaque mirror means, whereby each aspect of said article is reflected onto said screen by opaque and transparent mirror means.

2. An arrangement for displaying a plurality of aspects of an article comprising a viewing screen, a plurality of .4 mirror systems, each system in light-reflecting relation between said article and said screen, given of said systems comprising opaque mirror means defining first-light paths between said given systems and said screen, other of said systems comprising transparent mirror means within said first light-path and defining second light-paths between said other systems and said screen, optical reversing means in each of said first and said second lightpaths, and additional optical reversing means in said first light-path external of said second light-path.

3. An arrangement for displaying a plurality of aspects of an article comprising a viewing screen situated in a first plane, a first group of spaced opaque mirrors in a common second plane, said second plane at a given angle to said first plane, a second group of spaced opaque mirrors, symmetrically inclined in opposite directions a third plane, said third plane at a given angle to both said first and said second planes, a third group of spaced, transparent mirrors in a fourth plane, said fourth plane parallel to said second plane, each transparent mirror positioned intermediate a different mirror of said first and said second group, the mirrors of said second group positioned in light-reflecting relation with the mirrors of said first and said third groups, the mirrors of said first group in lightreflecting relation between the mirrors of said second group and said screen, optical reversing means intermediate said screen, said first group and said third group, and additional optical reversing means intermediate said first and said second group, whereby a plurality of aspects of said article is reflected onto said screen by said first and said third groups, at least one of said aspects being in a par-ticular position.

4. An arrangement as claimed in claim 3 further comprising a plurality of light-sources, each adapted to illuminate a different aspect of said article.

5. An arrangement as claimed in claim 3, wherein the given angle of said second and third planes is substantially forty-five degrees.

6. An arrangement as claimed in claim 3, wherein each of said first mirror groups comprises a pair of mirrors.

7. An arrangement as claimed in claim 3, further comprising conveying means for conveying said article be tween the mirrors of said second group.

8. An arrangement as claimed in claim 7, wherein said conveying means comprises a main belt adapted to move between the mirrors of said second group in a plane parallel to said first plane, a pair of opposed clamping belts adapted to have their opposed surfaces move in synchronism and in .the same direction as said main belt, said clamping bel-ts adapted to clamp said article between their opposed surfaces in a manner to permit reflection of a substantial portion of different aspects of said article to said screen.

9. An arrangement as claimed in claim 3, wherein said viewing screen is translucent.

10. An arrangement as claimed in claim 8, wherein said conveying means is adapted to be moved interruptedly.

11. -An arrangement as. claimed in claim 8, further comprising auxiliary conveying means sorting control means adapted to be controlled by an operator in accordance with the aspects reflected onto said screen, said control means adapted to selectively route said articles to particular auxiliary conveying means from said main belt.

No references cited. 

